Researchers from the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering have developed simulations of potential tsunami activity in the Indian Ocean using their own simulation and analysis software.

“We have been developing since the late 80’s a fairly sophisticated numerical code that takes information about the earthquake and makes projections about how far the tsunami is going to travel inland — what we call inundation,” says Costas Synolakis, director of the USC Tsunami Research Center.

The code Synolakis and his team have been developing is called MOST (Method of Splitting Tsunami), a finite-difference algorithm that is capable of simulating three stages of a tsunami: the earthquake, transoceanic propagation and inundation. “In engineering and this kind of analysis in wave hydrodynamics we still do our own programming; there are no packaged products out there that will do simulation for tsunamis,” says Synolakis.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is also using MOST to create real-time projections for tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean. “NOAA is actually right now considering licensing the technology out; they’ve done an incredible amount of development work,” says Synolakis.

Synolakis and his team at the Research Center also use 3D Studio Max to produce animation models of the simulations by inputing grid information from their analysis. “We have a set of mathematical equations that we have to solve in time and space, so these models typically can have up to 50,000 x 50,000 points in a grid and we have to upgrade this grid continuously as the tsunami proceeds,” he says.

One of Synolakis’s goals with his work is to help policy makers and civil defense workers around the world visualize the possibility of a tsunami so there won’t be a repeat of the killer tsunami faced in 2004. “This is where the surface renderers and the modern animation tools are fantastic because people can really see and to a certain extent feel what may happen,” says Synolakis. “They’re excellent, excellent tools for public education.”

Other current applications for the software and technology include calculating storm surges during hurricanes and predicting what happens in lakes and reservoirs during a moving weather front.

Synolakis just published a paper titled "Far-field tsunami hazard from mega-thrust earthquakes in the Indian Ocean" about his most recent work mapping the Indian Ocean.

Researchers are using modeling techniques, simulation software to visualize possible tsunami activity in the Indian Ocean

Last week, OSD Displays announced a solution for users of PLED models from OSRAM, which were discontinued in August 2007. The new OSD-2864ASYCG01 is a drop-in replacement for these PLEDs with the same IC and the same pin configuration.

“There are some existing customers that have designs based on the OSRAM part they can no longer get and this would be a solution for them so they don’t have to redesign their system,” says Mehmet Tugrul, field applications engineer for OSD Displays. “It’s basically a drop-in mechanically and electrically, so if you’ve got a design already, it’s a perfect fit; you don’t have to do any mechanical redesigns or any software redesign.”

The OSD-2864ASYCG01 is a 128- x 64-pixel, monochrome yellow OLED display with a 1.54-inch screen measuring 45.24 x 29.14 x 2.2mm. The display uses a 24-conductor ZIF-type 0.5mm pitch flex interface and is compatible with I2C and SPI interfaces.

The OSD-2864ASYCG01 is used in automotive, consumer, industrial and medical applications and has a minimum contrast of 160:1 and a high-end contrast of 1000:1 (in ideal conditions).

There were a couple of reasons for OSRAM to discontinue its PLED models, according to Tugrul. OSRAM was not getting the return on investment it originally thought it would and the company wanted to focus on the lighting business rather than the display business. “They’re going to use their organic technology in indoor lighting or other lighting applications or signage,” says Tugrul.

Other current advancements from OSD Displays include its new Active Matrix OLED displays, which feature a thin film transistor (TFT) at each pixel to drive the display. “It holds a charge on the individual pixel so you don’t have to drive it as hard,” says Tugrul. “That increases life and brightness of the display without degrading the display as much.”

	The OSD-2864ASYCG01 drops into existing systems to replace PLED displays from OSRAM.

A new mobile device from Polymer Vision has the functionality of a cell phone, an e-reader, and a portable audio player.

The Readius features a foldable 5-inch screen display. “With the display and the form factor we merged two worlds together, the world of e-reading and combined it with a mobile phone,” says Thomas Vander Zijden, vice president of marketing and sales for Polymer Vision.

The Readius’ 5-inch screen compares to a more common 2-inch diagonal screen on a cell phone and a 3.5-inch screen on an iPhone. The entire body is comparable to the size of a cell phone at 115 x 57 x 21mm and weighs 115g.

The foldable screen uses electronic paper from E Ink and has 16 shades of grayscale. Since the device uses electronic paper rather than a backlit screen, it uses less battery power and boasts 30 hours of battery life for continuous reading.

The device can be connected to a computer through a USB connection and uses a microSD card as an expandable storage medium or can connect over a 3G cellular network. The Readius can store and access electronic books, audio books, podcasts and various audio file types including MP3, AAC and WMA.

“Polymer Vision is ready for market launch by the middle of 2008,” says Vander Zijden. “We have announced a cooperation with Telecom Italia, who will launch the product in Italy.” Polymer Vision is also working with various publishers and content providers to establish a base of content formatted for the device — what they are calling a content portal.

In 2006 Polymer Vision spun off from Philips, who started the original development of the Readius. “Of course the first steps toward this product have been made while we were still part of Philips,” says Vander Zijden. “In terms of, let’s say, business direction but also operations we are completely independent from Philips, but definitely in technology development of the display and first steps of concept development of the Readius, that has been done in very close cooperation with Philips.”